The Bucks remain interested in acquiring DeAndre Jordan and it was reported last week that Milwaukee was the team most likely to land the center. However, Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times (Twitter link) hears that the Bucks are no longer the frontrunners for Jordan’s services. The scribe did not specify which team is the most likely to acquire the 29-year-old.

Jordan can become an unrestricted free agent if he turns down his player option, which is worth slightly over $24.1MM, and he has been the subject of trade rumors with the Clippers having an up-and-down season. He’s currently nursing a left ankle injury and has missed the team’s last three contests.

Any team looking to make a deal for the center will likely want to see him come back at full strength before pulling the trigger on a trade and with this season’s early trade deadline (February 8), time is ticking.

Here are some other notes from the Central Division:

Pacers president Kevin Pritchard is thrilled with the trade that netted the team Victor Oladipo, as Clifton Brown of the Indianapolis Star passes along.“From our perspective, we targeted Victor and [Domantas Sabonis]. It wasn’t by chance. They are two young players we wanted. Victor has been like a breath of fresh air. What’s that saying, High tide lifts all boats? That’s what he’s been for us,” the executive said. Indiana owns a record of 24-20 this season and is in the thick of the Eastern Conference’s playoff race.

LeBron James, who is expected to turn down his player option worth over $35.6MM and become a free agent at the end of the season, may be having his most impressive season to date, Nate Wolf of NBAMath contends. Wolf crunches the numbers and also finds that LBJ is having the best season ever for anyone at the age of 33.

If the people in L.A. would realize he’s staying in Cleveland, and quit making a big deal out of it, it wouldn’t be a big deal. They’re tired of the Lakers losing so every summer they start dreaming big on free agents they don’t get.

He was always in there as a contract filler. Obviously the Lakers hoped for more but I think it was more important to the Lakers front office that Lopez’s contract is expiring more than him playing well. He was likely going to leave anyway as the numbers he put up in healthy years suggest he’s worth a one year “prove it” or a short term deal depending on how he played this year. Somebody will likely give him a one year deal in the $7-12 range which would’ve likely put him out of the Lakers plans if they wanted to sign two max free agents.

For the Pacers, Pacer fans expected to be competing with the Hawks. Pritchard does deserve executive of year for Oladipo, Sabonis, Bogdonovich, Collison, and Leaf. He got a good start for first year on the job replacing the Bird man.